Rutgers' season opener against Temple is a sellout

In what will be the first home game in front of fans for the Scarlet Knights since the return of head coach Greg Schiano, the Rutgers football season opener is officially sold out this Thursday night against the Temple Owls. As of right now, the weather does not look too promising as the forecast is predicting a chance of thunderstorms. However, mother nature is not stopping a single fan from attending the season opener.

Unfortunately, the general public can no longer purchase tickets due to the sellout, but student tickets are still available and will be up until kickoff.

Coming off a season where the Scarlet Knights tied a program high with three Big Ten victories, Coach Schiano’s team is hoping to build off of last year’s success. Despite a unique and shortened season due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Rutgers football put together a very solid campaign including several program records. After the 2020 season, 14 Scarlet Knights were recognized in the All-Big Ten voting and over 40 student-athletes received Academic All-Big Ten honors – both program highs. In addition, Rutgers’ offense made a giant leap as they averaged a little over 26 points per game last year. While the offense performed well, it was the Scarlet Knights’ defense that was the biggest story last year. The defense recorded 19 takeaways and led the Big Ten conference in tackles-for-loss with 7.8.

Going up against this Rutgers defense and a 12th man in the Scarlet Nation fanbase, the Temple Owls have their hands full come September 2nd. After a disappointing 2020 season, the Owls are trying to get back to their winning ways under third-year head coach Rod Carey. With the transfer of quarterback Anthony Russo, Temple will be going with redshirt freshman D’Wan Mathis to start the season. A former 4-star, Mathis transferred to Temple from Georgia, Mathis and the Owls will also be without their former QB coach Craig Harmon who resigned this past season. Harmon was Temple’s QB coach for the past two seasons and has been with Carey since 2014.

One could say Temple’s football program is in rebuild mode with the addition of 9 transfers and 12 incoming freshmen, but there is no reason for the Scarlet Knights to take them lightly.

In an interview with Emmy Award-winning journalist Bruce Beck, Coach Schiano was asked if he had a message for the best fans in America, Schiano replied, “Get ready and we need you”. With a sold-out crowd days before the season’s first game, Rutgers fanbase is clearly ready. Now, it is up to the Scarlet Knights to come away with the win. The game will kick off at 6:30 E.T. at SHI Stadium in Piscataway and will be streamed on the Big Ten Network.